The invention relates to a haulage device for the continuous removal of material excavated below ground, which can be continuously slaved between a mining machine and a continuous road haulage means over a defined path and narrow curve radii of the mining machine while continuously hauling without interruption.
For the haulage of material won by underground mining, various haulage methods have become known. In principle, it is, for instance, feasible to initially provide a driving road, departing from which the desired material will then be excavated laterally of the road. Normally, conventional belt conveyors which need to master only small lateral excursions over extended lengths will do for “long wall mining”. In a mining method such as, for instance, the “room and pillar” method, the material is excavated from rooms or chambers, with pillars being each left to support the roof, wherein, taking into account the respectively left pillars, road haulage means have to cope with frequent changes of direction and narrow curve radii, and a conventional road haulage means, for instance, in the form of subsequently installed conveyor belts may be arranged in the road at a point located further downstream. In order to enable the transport from the actual mining or winning site to a road haulage means even in the event of such narrow curves, WO 2005/056981 has already proposed to use so-called shuttle vehicles to transport material from the driving machine and, hence, from the mine face to a stationary haulage device arranged in the road further downstream. In the region of the road, no passing place is, as a rule, provided for such vehicles, and the use of such shuttle vehicles has, therefore, been accordingly optimized.
Such shuttle vehicles must, in turn, be designed to be extremely curve-going. The use of such shuttle cars will also affect the continuity of the haulage, with the transport car to arrive next always having to be awaited before the next haulage away from the cutting machine can be realized.
The invention aims to provide a haulage device of the initially defined kind, which enables the continuous haulage even in the event of narrow curve radii and mining being, for instance, performed according to the known room and pillar method.